Hu Jintao seen prevailing in PLA power struggle with Xi Jinping and Jiang Zemin

Hu Jintao seen prevailing in PLA power struggle with Xi Jinping and Jiang Zemin

Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, East-Asia-Intel.com President Hu Jintao has clawed back some territory with a reshuffle of the People’s Liberation Army’s top brass that largely tallies with the wishes of the 69-year-old supremo. It seems likely that Hu will remain chairman of the policy-setting Central Military Commission (CMC) for a couple more years […]

Joint U.S.-Japan election-season exercise scrubbed out of sensitivity to China

Joint U.S.-Japan election-season exercise scrubbed out of sensitivity to China

Special to WorldTribune.com East-Asia-Intel.com Washington and Tokyo have decided to cancel a large joint amphibious exercise scheduled for Nov. 5, one day before the U.S. presidential election and three days before China’s 18th Communist Party Congress, in which a major shuffling of government leadership will occur. The exercise was scheduled long before Beijing announced the […]

At confab on North Korea, not a single word about the hundreds of thousands in gulags

At confab on North Korea, not a single word about the hundreds of thousands in gulags

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com What are the experts thinking when they talk in learned tones, replete with facts and stats, about issues and conditions for North-South Korean reunification, the pitfalls and problems, but omit passing mention of one of the most awful obstacles? At a conference this week bearing the portentous title, […]

Parade of billionaire ‘red capitalists’ coming for CCP’s 18th Party Congress

Parade of billionaire ‘red capitalists’ coming for CCP’s 18th Party Congress

Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, East-Asia-Intel.com Just 11 years after then-President Jiang Zemin took the unorthodox step of admitting private businessmen into the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), an unprecedentedly large number of “red capitalists” are set to be inducted into the Party’s policy-setting Central Committee. According to the official media, at least 24 non-state-sector […]

The people be damned: Recalling the odd friendship between ‘Snooky’ Sihanouk and Kim Il-Sung

The people be damned: Recalling the odd friendship between ‘Snooky’ Sihanouk and Kim Il-Sung

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com They formed one of the oddest, blood-stained duos in Asian history. Cambodia’s king and prince and then king again, Norodom Sihanouk, bonded with North Korea’s “Great Leader” Kim Il-Sung for reasons that had to do with their mutual hatred of the United States. Never did the adage, the […]

Blast from past may block rise of Shanghai Party boss to Politburo Standing Committee

Blast from past may block rise of Shanghai Party boss to Politburo Standing Committee

Special to WorldTribune.com By Willy Lam, East-Asia-Intel.com Even history buffs in China have only a hazy recollection of one of the most sensational spy and defection cases in Communist Chinese history. In 1985, Yu Qiangsheng, a senior cadre in Beijing’s Ministry of State Security, defected to the United States. The information he provided led to […]

Big Bird is a tool for the Democrats, yes, but also for the Chinese regime

Big Bird is a tool for the Democrats, yes, but also for the Chinese regime

Special to WorldTribune.com By Cliff Kincaid The George Soros-funded Free Press Action Fund describes itself as “a nonpartisan organization” which “does not support or oppose any candidate for public office.” But last week it announced that the “attack on Big Bird and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting” at the presidential debate had “sparked intense reactions […]

Daughter of a controversial leader runs for president of South Korea

Daughter of a controversial leader runs for president of South Korea

Special to WorldTribune.com By Donald Kirk, East-Asia-Intel.com The specter of Park Geun-Hye running for president of the Republic of Korea evokes almost as many memories for those foreigners who were here during the reign of her father as it does for millions of Koreans who share quite differing perspectives. As a journalist in pursuit of […]

China’s intensifying showdown with Japan is distracting from its growing internal crisis

China’s intensifying showdown with Japan is distracting from its growing internal crisis

Special to WorldTribune.com By Brian M Downing, FreePressers.com The dispute between China and Japan over the Senkakus group of uninhabited islands and barren rocks jutting up from the East China Sea has intensified in recent days. China has sent armed vessels to the island and anti-Japanese demonstrations have broken out in Chinese cities. Japan has […]

Kim Jong-Un’s frequent visits to front-line bases makes South anxious

Kim Jong-Un’s frequent visits to front-line bases makes South anxious

Special to WorldTribune.com By Lee Jong-Heon, East-Asia-Intel.com YEONPYEONG ISLAND, South Korea — North Korea’s youthful new dictator Kim Jong-Un’s frequent visits to front-line military bases have put residents of this border island on alert over fears that the North will launch another deadly artillery attack similar to the one in November 2010. While fishermen continue […]